- Possessing or displaying courage; valiant.
- Making a fine display; impressive or showy: "a coat of brave red lipstick on a mouth so wrinkled that it didn't even have a clear outline" (Anne Tyler).
- Excellent; great: "The Romans were like brothers/In the brave days of old" (Thomas Macaulay).
- A Native American warrior.
- A courageous person.
- Archaic. A bully.
v., braved, brav·ing, braves. v.tr.
- To undergo or face courageously.
- To challenge; dare: "Together they would brave Satan and all his legions" (Emily Brontë).
- Obsolete. To make showy or splendid.
To make a courageous show or put up a stalwart front.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Old Italian or Old Spanish bravo, wild, brave, excellent, probably from Vulgar Latin *brabus, from Latin barbarus. See barbarous.]
bravely brave'ly adv.braveness brave'ness n.
SYNONYMS brave, courageous, fearless, intrepid, bold, audacious, valiant, valorous, mettlesome, plucky, dauntless, undaunted. These adjectives mean having or showing courage under difficult or dangerous conditions. Brave, the least specific, is frequently associated with an innate quality: "Familiarity with danger makes a brave man braver" (Herman Melville). Courageous implies consciously rising to a specific test by drawing on a reserve of inner strength: The courageous soldier helped the civilians escape from the enemy. Fearless emphasizes absence of fear and resolute self-possession: "world-class (Jo Ann Morse Ridley). Intrepid sometimes suggests invulnerability to fear: Intrepid pioneers settled the American West. Bold stresses readiness to meet danger or difficulty and often a tendency to seek it out: "If we shrink from the hard contests where men must win at the hazard of their lives ... then bolder and stronger peoples will pass us by" (Theodore Roosevelt). Audacious implies extreme confidence and boldness: "To demand these God-given rights is to seek black power-what I call audacious power" (Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.). Valiant suggests the bravery of a hero or a heroine: "a sympathetic and detailed biography that sees Hemingway as a valiant and moral man" (New York Times). Valorous applies to the deeds of heroes and heroines: "The other hostages (William W. Bradley). Mettlesome stresses spirit and love of challenge: "her horse, whose mettlesome spirit required a better rider" (Henry Fielding). Plucky emphasizes spirit and heart in the face of unfavorable odds: "Everybody was ... anxious to show these Belgians what England thought of their plucky little country" (H.G. Wells). Dauntless refers to courage that resists subjection or intimidation: "So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war,/There never was knight like the young Lochinvar" (Sir Walter Scott). Undaunted suggests persistent courage and resolve: "Death and sorrow will be the companions of our journey-=@ellipsis4=- We must be united, we must be undaunted, we must be inflexible" (Winston S. Churchill). See also synonyms at defy.
